Don’t dare sell off our national assets

THE new Government is examining ways to reduce the €85bn bailout burden. Among the proposals is far-reaching privatisation of yet more State resources in a big sell-off. Great. This will help continue the trend of concentrating even more of the country’s wealth into fewer, private hands.

If Coillte is sold it will literally mean 7% of our entire national landmass being transferred overnight from public to private ownership. This could have serious consequences for public access to this land — hikers, walkers, picnickers to name a few — is there any guarantee these forests wouldn’t simply be cut for export at short notice? To make matters worse, this concerns Ireland’s few remaining more primal forests, as well as commercial coniferous crops. Once gone, they literally can’t be replaced — at least not in our lifetimes. The biggest insult of all is that we — the Irish public — are the shareholders of that forest. It is not the property of any one government to do with as they please.

No management of any company would dare sell off company assets at firesale prices without first consulting the shareholders, which is what is being proposed here.

There has to be a public referendum on the stripping of public assets if Enda Kenny’s claim of a “sweeping new political culture” is to be taken seriously. With the mistakes of the Rossport gas sell-off about to be repeated, already it’s beginning to look like ‘business as usual’. Our leaders really need to stop acting as proconsuls in an EU empire and start putting the people of this country first, at least for once.

Nick Folley

Carrigaline

Co Cork